Goldschmidt stays hot as D-backs clinch series over Rockies
Jun 9, 2018, 9:01 PM | Updated: 9:25 pm
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
DENVER — Paul Goldschmidt keeps providing souvenirs at Coors Field. What killed the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night wasn’t his second straight two-homer game but a soft dribbler back to the mound by pinch-hitter Ketel Marte that keyed Arizona’s 12-7 comeback win.
The possible double play became a double error when Bryan Shaw booted the ball, and then whipped it into right field.
“Paul has two huge home runs and has a tremendous day and they can’t pick up a ball that you practice probably 500 times in spring training and throughout the course of the year,” marveled Arizona manager Torey Lovullo. “We took advantage of it. Glad we were able to pile on six runs.”
Shaw (2-5) entered the game to protect a 7-6 lead and allowed six runs — only one of them earned — while getting just two outs in the eighth before leaving to a chorus of boos and insults from the crowd of 43,000-plus.
Following John Ryan Murphy’s leadoff bloop single, Shaw figured he had an easy double play when he got Marte to dribble a soft comebacker.
So did Marte.
“I made contact and ran,” said Marte, who wouldn’t stop until he was on third base.
Rockies manager Bud Black spoke afterward about how Shaw’s mechanics were better and the hits he gave up after that strange play must have had eyes. But Shaw was in no mood to excuse his meltdown.
“I mean, the hits were whatever. I field that, throw to second, we turn the double play, I strike out the next guy, the inning’s over. Nothing else happens after that,” Shaw said. “It’s obviously the bobble and the throwaway.”
All those hits that barely eluded the Rockies? That’s baseball, said shortstop Trevor Story, whose night included two homers and a defensive gem that were rendered mere footnotes in Colorado’s sixth straight loss at home and seventh consecutive defeat to the Diamondbacks at Coors Field dating to last June 21.
Silvino Bracho (2-0) threw a pair of 1-2-3 innings and struck out four in relief of starter Matt Koch, who gave up three homers, including Story’s 13th and 14th — and one to DJ LeMahieu, his sixth.
GOLDEN GOLDSCHMIDT
Goldschmidt went 3-for-4 — his franchise-record fourth straight game with at least three hits — and has 16 hits in eight games in June after collecting 14 hits in 27 games in May. He hit his 11th and 12th long balls this season, both off Rockies starter Chad Bettis.
Goldschmidt’s first homer was a solo shot that traveled an estimated 450 feet.
“The second was a Coors Field home run,” Goldschmidt said of his 354-footer into the left-field bleachers that drove in three runs in the fourth.
The last Arizona hitter to post consecutive multi-homer games was Jean Segura on Sept. 13-14, 2016.
The Rockies have allowed seven or more runs in each of their six straight losses at home, and the D’Backs have collected 22 homers in their seven straight wins in Denver’s launching pad of a downtown ballpark.
Nick Ahmed also took Bettis deep.
HISTORIC HOMERS
The Rockies have allowed a major league record three or more home runs in five consecutive home games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Colorado also has given up 10 or more hits in 11 consecutive games since May 28. That’s the longest in the majors since Seattle’s 11-game streak in August of 2008 and the longest in the National League since the Dodgers had a 12-game streak from Aug. 23-Sept. 5, 2006.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Diamondbacks: OF Steven Souza Jr. (right pectoral strain) took live at-bats against injured starters Robbie Ray (strained right oblique) and Jorge De La Rosa (right Achilles bursitis) on Saturday. Ray threw two innings and De La Rosa one. Both will take Sunday off. … A.J. Pollock (fractured thumb) will have a CT scan next week. … RHP Shelby Miller (Tommy John surgery) will throw 85-90 pitches for Double-A Jackson on Sunday.
Rockies: RF Carlos Gonzalez was a late scratch from the lineup with back spasms. He was replaced in right field by Noel Cuevas and in the cleanup spot by Story, who came close to hitting his third homer of the night when he flied out to the wall in right in the eighth. Black said Gonzalez is doubtful for Sunday.
UP NEXT
Diamondbacks RHP Zack Godley (5-5, 5.12) faces Rockies LHF Kyle Freeland (6-5, 3.48) in Sunday’s finale of the three-game series.